[Being officially engaged was apparently busying work because for the last week Nariko hasn't been the easiest to reach. Sure, she had the occasional need for privacy but with Boxer it was often enough to be together without really doing anything together. He could go work or cook or watch something and she'd just exist around him, content as the fish in his tank. But she hasn't seen his apartment, let alone the man himself in four full days. It's a strangely long time for two people who hadn't separated since the day they met.
But on the fifth she turns up after texting to make sure he wasn't working, and she has all sorts of gifts (new shirts, Junction Jan's Sea Monster, cheesecake, etc) and apologies that are only gently tinted with both exhaustion and guilt. More than anything she's incredibly grateful to be near him again and it shows. For having spent so much time apart Nariko can't seem to let go of him once she's walked in the door.
It's probably only right to say that she spends a good handful of hours exuberantly making up for her absence. After that comes a shower, and all is well - or should be. Her phone keeps going off, alternating between an endless series of vibrations and her ringtone. When the screen lights up the numbers tell all: 26 missed calls and 68 new texts.
Someone is really trying to get a hold of her, but she can't hear it right now.
Maybe just ignore it, Boxer? That's what she's tried to do.]
[It was hard on him, both mentally and physically. Not having her simply around made it so much harder for him to de-stress at home given that he was steeped in tangible loneliness. The physical part was obvious, but all the more stress-inducing because he was faithful and loyal...but also just about to crawl out of his skin. It made him feel gross and dependant, but once she showed up and they worked it out through explosive hours-long sex he doesn't feel that way anymore.
In fact, he's one content monster that is currently chilling on his couch, trying to snooze while Nariko takes her shower. Emphasis on the word "try", of course, because there's a little alarm that keeps going off.]
Are you kidding me...
[he grumbles under his breath, reaching out with a tentacle to snatch it out of her bag. He's been around her long enough to know her phone unlocking sequence, but he doesn't intend to snoop, he just wants to turn the damn thing off.]
If it's that much of an emergency, call the--oh.
[Holy shit. That is a lot of messages. And that sure is a vaguely familiar name. Well...he'll just open one message to get the idea and let Nariko know what the oh-so desperate emergency is.]
[When they'd broken up she'd taken his picture off of his number, because she did have to call her ex-boyfriend a few more times - namely to get her extra set of keys back, insisting on that a few times before she'd ultimately had to change her locks. So his name is still there, a constant flow in her missed call log and her unheard voicemails and texts. 'Chris, Chris, Chris' over and over again.
If Boxer starts at the very top then the messages don't seem so bad, it's a lot of 'Please call me' and 'I need to talk to you' and 'I know you have your phone, don't ignore me'. But once it becomes incredibly clear that he's not getting the attention he wants the messages become incredibly long, whole huge paragraphs about how she couldn't get married (in all caps, multiple times), not when they were on a 'break' and why had she insisted he be thrown out of 'their' apartment building?
Apparently the last few days have been incredibly rough, because the texts where he alternates between begging and threatening to see her go back at least a full day. Shit's been nuts.
["Don't ignore me" indeed. Damn, this guy is desperate and seriously needs to be dealt with. Instead of responding to him, though, he puts Nariko's phone on airplane mode to truly silence it and lays back down on his couch to wait for her to come out of the shower.
He wonders if this has any correlation to why she hasn't been around...he takes a thoughtful sip of water and tries to relax for the time being.]
[Nariko comes back out in one of her sleep shirts, hair damp and braided out of the way, with a big smile on her face. If she's been dealing with him on her own then it seems as if she's eerily unbothered by the whole thing.]
So I've decided something. [And since she isn't paying attention to her phone or her bag, she's pretty set on joining Boxer on the couch and taking up his lap.] I'm not leaving you ever again for more than a day.
[Because four had been absolutely awful. She had wholly, utterly devoted herself to Boxer's sexual needs and while it wasn't impossible for her to feel the same biological need the mental need wasn't to be underestimated. Obviously she wasn't going to smother Boxer or become dependent but Nariko was apparently so in love, Boxer was so integral to her daily life, that she couldn't handle his absence. Rather than beat herself up about it she'd just have to make it work for the long term.]
Have I mentioned that I'm incredibly sorry? Because I am very, very sorry.
[She's not an idiot, it wasn't easy on him either and the idea that she caused him any pain is unbearable, but better a few terrible days than a fight.]
[It is a little creepy, yeah. Boxer doesn't seem to mind once she settles onto his blanketed lap--he cuddles deeper into said blanket himself, comforted by her proximity and feeling her weight on his body.]
It's been tough on you too, huh? [He chuckles softly, taking in the view. She's so adorable when she's dressed down...]
What happened, anyway? Even when work gets brutal you usually still have time to show me that you're still alive...
[Here's your chance to come clean without any prompting, Nariko.]
[There's a grand amount of irony in that he probably enjoys her dressed down days as much as, if not more, than when she maintains her usual level of perfection. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she would never let anyone else see her without makeup, a bra, or her hair done properly? It's pretty much just for Boxer.]
More like completely fucking awful. [She had no desire to argue with the past, her time was better spent in her future, after all! So was it really that much of a surprise she didn't want to bring it up? But Nariko wasn't going to lie, either!]
It wasn't work, to be honest. [But not too honest.] It was a personal issue and it just got a lot bigger than it had any right to.
[She's talking as if it's already done and over with when that obviously isn't the case.]
[He loves her, plain and simple. He loves her in her make-up, he loves her when she's all dressed up in Fashion Week's latest blockbusters, he loves her when she's dressed down, he loves her when she's tousled and tired and bed-worn. He. Loves. Her.
Even when she's got baggage she needs to shed.]
Personal issue?
[If she's not gonna call a duck a duck, he might as ask what's quacking.]
Is that why your phone's been blowing up my apartment?
[He asks, as if completely non-accusatory and ignorant. Instead, he sounds worried! Very worried.]
Even non-accusatory there's a moment where she's clearly trying to weigh the possibilities, namely the one where he looked at her screen, even in passing, and might have seen something. This is where she'd probably lie and insist that nothing was really wrong, but he does seem concerned and she can't hide much of anything from him.]
Something like that. I'm sorry, I thought it would stop.
[That's a half-quack.] It's fine, though! Some stuff you just - y'know, you wait it out and then it's over with.
[From the very bottom of her heart Nariko is convinced that if she ignores Christian he'll give up, and they'll never hear anything from him again.]
[Implying that she had hurts almost as much as him giving her the stupid phone.] I stayed away because I didn't want him to follow me to your apartment or something. [She was trying to keep the drama away from him! Not that it's worked out very well for her.]
I've already told him to leave me alone and they aren't going to let him in my building anymore.
[This is so not what she wanted to talk about, goddammit.]
I appreciate the effort. [Genuinely! Not that a single human is much of a threat to a kraken...] But if he's going to do this to your phone, you either need to block his number or get the Administration involved. Or both.
[She opens her mouth and her phone goes off yet again, he's calling her this time.]
I'll block him, okay?
[So at the very least even if he wants to call it won't bother Boxer any. She's letting the current one go to voicemail because if she denies it then it's probably going to seem like she's near her phone, and that'll probably make it all worse. The second she can unlock it she's just going to text her coworkers and tell them to email her if they need something. It's about the best she can do.]
[He's a little tempered by the gesture, but he's still kind of bothered in a way that he can't put into words. He tucks a hand behind his head and looks idly off into a random direction while she contacts her coworkers.
Unfortunately, he's not aware of how attractive his pouty face is.]
[She opens her phone quickly and blocks his phone number, his email on all of her mail apps, and then she sends a mass text before powering her phone off. No more of this bullshit, she's making up for lost time with Boxer and that's all that matters right now.]
Come on handsome, tell me how I can make it up to you.
[Her phone is pushed onto his coffee table, out of sight and out of her mind, before she drapes over him.] Because I was thinking a massage, to start with, and then dinner, and then this weekend, if it's okay with the guys at work, we could run off on a little weekend getaway. Four days of you, me, and a waterfront bed and breakfast.
[She needed to get away from all of this just as much as she needed to focus her entire being on her fiancee, and the life they were going to have in the very near future.]
Just ignore that it's also a beautiful place to get married and I wanted you to look at it.
[Boxer moves his other hand to rub at his face. In order to take the weekend off, he's gotta give ample heads-up...is there enough time for that? Four days...maybe not. He'll have to see.]
I'm willing to accept massage and dinner as a make-up, but I'd rather a weekend getaway is for wedding venue spotting only.
[Vacation is too much for an apology. If there was ever that big of an apology needed, it's probably more time for a talk than time for a getaway.]
[She tilts her head down to kiss at his collarbone, and dots a few extras to his broad shoulders and neck.] I think you're gonna love the place, though. It's right be the water and beautiful, big enough to host my obnoxious family and more.
[Since they're talking about the wedding and all that:] And since I've brought them up ... Would you be okay if we kept it a little small and private?
[Yeah, she really could have set that up a bit better, oops!]
That's what I mean, though! I want the people that I know to be there. The rest of them want to come because it's a party and I'm the last grandchild to get married, but the more I think about it the more that feels like bullshit.
[It would take their guest list from over one hundred people on her side down to about the mid-thirties, which is a vast improvement and still leaves more room for anyone Boxer might want to be there.]
It'll probably be better if we cap it at around three hundred people, total. Would that work?
[On top of her guaranteed thirty there's still coworkers that she likes enough to invite, Lena and some of her college friends ... So it's really just incredibly tricky crowd control, but she doesn't want to limit him in any sense.]
[For settling one of the many different variables they have to stabilize when it comes to their marriage, he gets a lil' kiss.]
Just one last thing - we kind of need a time frame. Or an actual day. A lot of places book in advance so we can look all we want, but it's impossible to do anything without that, so ...
[She's doing her best to not sound pushy about it, but there's an obvious, excited lilt to her voice. A date is important, that makes it incredibly real, it means that she might stop worrying that one of these days he'll just call it off and tell her he's not quite ready for it yet. But even nearly a year (?? A year sounds good) of being together Nariko still occasionally edits herself out of fear.]
I can't decide between Spring or Fall. If it's in the Spring we could have our honeymoon in Summer!
[And then they could have the orgy!] But if it's in Fall then I have the perfect day, and Christmas will be right around the corner.
[.... She's also kind of thinking it'd be nice to be knocked up around that general timeframe but even Nariko knows when to cool her jets a tad. The official starting of the family is still up in the air.]
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But on the fifth she turns up after texting to make sure he wasn't working, and she has all sorts of gifts (new shirts, Junction Jan's Sea Monster, cheesecake, etc) and apologies that are only gently tinted with both exhaustion and guilt. More than anything she's incredibly grateful to be near him again and it shows. For having spent so much time apart Nariko can't seem to let go of him once she's walked in the door.
It's probably only right to say that she spends a good handful of hours exuberantly making up for her absence. After that comes a shower, and all is well - or should be. Her phone keeps going off, alternating between an endless series of vibrations and her ringtone. When the screen lights up the numbers tell all: 26 missed calls and 68 new texts.
Someone is really trying to get a hold of her, but she can't hear it right now.
Maybe just ignore it, Boxer? That's what she's tried to do.]
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In fact, he's one content monster that is currently chilling on his couch, trying to snooze while Nariko takes her shower. Emphasis on the word "try", of course, because there's a little alarm that keeps going off.]
Are you kidding me...
[he grumbles under his breath, reaching out with a tentacle to snatch it out of her bag. He's been around her long enough to know her phone unlocking sequence, but he doesn't intend to snoop, he just wants to turn the damn thing off.]
If it's that much of an emergency, call the--oh.
[Holy shit. That is a lot of messages. And that sure is a vaguely familiar name. Well...he'll just open one message to get the idea and let Nariko know what the oh-so desperate emergency is.]
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If Boxer starts at the very top then the messages don't seem so bad, it's a lot of 'Please call me' and 'I need to talk to you' and 'I know you have your phone, don't ignore me'. But once it becomes incredibly clear that he's not getting the attention he wants the messages become incredibly long, whole huge paragraphs about how she couldn't get married (in all caps, multiple times), not when they were on a 'break' and why had she insisted he be thrown out of 'their' apartment building?
Apparently the last few days have been incredibly rough, because the texts where he alternates between begging and threatening to see her go back at least a full day. Shit's been nuts.
Meanwhile, the shower turns off.]
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He wonders if this has any correlation to why she hasn't been around...he takes a thoughtful sip of water and tries to relax for the time being.]
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So I've decided something. [And since she isn't paying attention to her phone or her bag, she's pretty set on joining Boxer on the couch and taking up his lap.] I'm not leaving you ever again for more than a day.
[Because four had been absolutely awful. She had wholly, utterly devoted herself to Boxer's sexual needs and while it wasn't impossible for her to feel the same biological need the mental need wasn't to be underestimated. Obviously she wasn't going to smother Boxer or become dependent but Nariko was apparently so in love, Boxer was so integral to her daily life, that she couldn't handle his absence. Rather than beat herself up about it she'd just have to make it work for the long term.]
Have I mentioned that I'm incredibly sorry? Because I am very, very sorry.
[She's not an idiot, it wasn't easy on him either and the idea that she caused him any pain is unbearable, but better a few terrible days than a fight.]
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It's been tough on you too, huh? [He chuckles softly, taking in the view. She's so adorable when she's dressed down...]
What happened, anyway? Even when work gets brutal you usually still have time to show me that you're still alive...
[Here's your chance to come clean without any prompting, Nariko.]
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More like completely fucking awful. [She had no desire to argue with the past, her time was better spent in her future, after all! So was it really that much of a surprise she didn't want to bring it up? But Nariko wasn't going to lie, either!]
It wasn't work, to be honest. [But not too honest.] It was a personal issue and it just got a lot bigger than it had any right to.
[She's talking as if it's already done and over with when that obviously isn't the case.]
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Even when she's got baggage she needs to shed.]
Personal issue?
[If she's not gonna call a duck a duck, he might as ask what's quacking.]
Is that why your phone's been blowing up my apartment?
[He asks, as if completely non-accusatory and ignorant. Instead, he sounds worried! Very worried.]
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Even non-accusatory there's a moment where she's clearly trying to weigh the possibilities, namely the one where he looked at her screen, even in passing, and might have seen something. This is where she'd probably lie and insist that nothing was really wrong, but he does seem concerned and she can't hide much of anything from him.]
Something like that. I'm sorry, I thought it would stop.
[That's a half-quack.] It's fine, though! Some stuff you just - y'know, you wait it out and then it's over with.
[From the very bottom of her heart Nariko is convinced that if she ignores Christian he'll give up, and they'll never hear anything from him again.]
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Wouldn't say being unable to spend time with me for the last four days is 'waiting it out'. Today is day five.
[He reaches into her back and suckers onto her phone to hold it out to her.]
You'd better deal with it before I do, because I don't to let issues fester that interfere with either of our quality of life.
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[Implying that she had hurts almost as much as him giving her the stupid phone.] I stayed away because I didn't want him to follow me to your apartment or something. [She was trying to keep the drama away from him! Not that it's worked out very well for her.]
I've already told him to leave me alone and they aren't going to let him in my building anymore.
[This is so not what she wanted to talk about, goddammit.]
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I'll block him, okay?
[So at the very least even if he wants to call it won't bother Boxer any. She's letting the current one go to voicemail because if she denies it then it's probably going to seem like she's near her phone, and that'll probably make it all worse. The second she can unlock it she's just going to text her coworkers and tell them to email her if they need something. It's about the best she can do.]
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[He's a little tempered by the gesture, but he's still kind of bothered in a way that he can't put into words. He tucks a hand behind his head and looks idly off into a random direction while she contacts her coworkers.
Unfortunately, he's not aware of how attractive his pouty face is.]
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Come on handsome, tell me how I can make it up to you.
[Her phone is pushed onto his coffee table, out of sight and out of her mind, before she drapes over him.] Because I was thinking a massage, to start with, and then dinner, and then this weekend, if it's okay with the guys at work, we could run off on a little weekend getaway. Four days of you, me, and a waterfront bed and breakfast.
[She needed to get away from all of this just as much as she needed to focus her entire being on her fiancee, and the life they were going to have in the very near future.]
Just ignore that it's also a beautiful place to get married and I wanted you to look at it.
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[Boxer moves his other hand to rub at his face. In order to take the weekend off, he's gotta give ample heads-up...is there enough time for that? Four days...maybe not. He'll have to see.]
I'm willing to accept massage and dinner as a make-up, but I'd rather a weekend getaway is for wedding venue spotting only.
[Vacation is too much for an apology. If there was ever that big of an apology needed, it's probably more time for a talk than time for a getaway.]
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[She tilts her head down to kiss at his collarbone, and dots a few extras to his broad shoulders and neck.] I think you're gonna love the place, though. It's right be the water and beautiful, big enough to host my obnoxious family and more.
[Since they're talking about the wedding and all that:] And since I've brought them up ... Would you be okay if we kept it a little small and private?
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Getting mixed signals here. You want it to be small but you want to invite your family?
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That's what I mean, though! I want the people that I know to be there. The rest of them want to come because it's a party and I'm the last grandchild to get married, but the more I think about it the more that feels like bullshit.
[It would take their guest list from over one hundred people on her side down to about the mid-thirties, which is a vast improvement and still leaves more room for anyone Boxer might want to be there.]
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[He runs his hand down his lower face. He gets what she means and he can probably accurately guess the majority of those thirty-some people.]
How many can I invite, then?
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[On top of her guaranteed thirty there's still coworkers that she likes enough to invite, Lena and some of her college friends ... So it's really just incredibly tricky crowd control, but she doesn't want to limit him in any sense.]
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[By name, anyway. Which means those that he'll invite are even less.]
So...yeah. S'pose that works for me.
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[For settling one of the many different variables they have to stabilize when it comes to their marriage, he gets a lil' kiss.]
Just one last thing - we kind of need a time frame. Or an actual day. A lot of places book in advance so we can look all we want, but it's impossible to do anything without that, so ...
[She's doing her best to not sound pushy about it, but there's an obvious, excited lilt to her voice. A date is important, that makes it incredibly real, it means that she might stop worrying that one of these days he'll just call it off and tell her he's not quite ready for it yet. But even nearly a year (?? A year sounds good) of being together Nariko still occasionally edits herself out of fear.]
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[Man. How do you even pick? 365 days of the year and you gotta pick just the right one.]
Any preference on what time of year? Prefer it wouldn't be summer because I don't want the temptation to turn our wedding into an orgy.
[...unless she wants to.]
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[And then they could have the orgy!] But if it's in Fall then I have the perfect day, and Christmas will be right around the corner.
[.... She's also kind of thinking it'd be nice to be knocked up around that general timeframe but even Nariko knows when to cool her jets a tad. The official starting of the family is still up in the air.]
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sorry about the long tag waits...been trying to get jerb
obtainment of the jerb is important, I understand friend I will cheer you on from here
this most recent attempt has been going well so far
Good!!!
we should have boxer run into chris when he comes over to help her pack
I was literally thinking the same thing, high fives
great minds, etc
tiiiime skip here if that's chill
never, ever chill
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